New Kid On The Blog

10-Feb-2010:

I feel that I must give credit to my MIL who has been really superb all this time. She started taking care of my nephew (her first grandchild) when my SIL gave birth. Then, 3 years later, my SIL gave birth to another son and my MIL started taking care of him too. After a while, she told us that she was tired and hopefully she won't have to take care of yet another grandchild. She helped out with Dominic for a couple of months before we went to the UK.

Few years later, my SIL got pregnant again and this time a girl, and my MIL took on the responsibility yet another time. And now, she has Dominic and Emily too. Here's how she manages her day.

At 6:30am when I awake to feed Emily, I could hear that my MIL is already awake and busying about the house. She waits at the front porch for my nephews and niece to arrive, and I know that while she's waiting, she mops the front porch as well. When they arrive, she gets Sern ready for school. She doesn't need to do that with Dom because I'm still around. After Dom and Sern have gone off for school, she clears their breakfast dishes/bowls and gives Shaynne (the baby) a towel bath. Usually, she also goes to the coffee shop across the road for breakfast and to "catch-up" with her aunty friends.

When she comes home from breakfast, she will start preparing lunch. Previously, she would cook about 4-5 dishes but since Dom and Sern started attending after school programme, they don't eat lunch at home, so my MIL now cooks only simple dishes such as oven-baked salmon and a vegetable. By the time she's done with lunch (and she also washes the kitchen floor after cooking), Emily will be awake. She gives her a bath and then hands her over to my FIL who then feeds her milk. Then she bathes Joe, gives him lunch and gets him ready for school. If anyone asks my opinion (which no one did), I think Joe is old enough to bathe himself. She then sends Joe to school together with my FIL - she walks Joe into the school compound while FIL waits in the car. Previously, they will have to bring all the kids with them because they can't leave them alone in the house. Come to think of it, I forgot to find out if they bring Emily along as well? � suppose they do.

When she comes home from sending Joe, she will have to give Shaynne a bath, gives her milk and put her down for afternoon nap. Of course, she needs to eat lunch as well - squeezed in between her busy schedule. She then has to collect the dry laundry. While Shaynne and Emily are sleeping, she mops the floor and every other day, cleans the bathroom as well. I don't think she has anytime to rest before Dom and Sern come back from school around 3:30pm.

She will then need to give both of them a bath. By the time she's done, it must be at least 4pm. If Dom and Sern are good, she might get a chance to nap as well, otherwise she will spend the entire afternoon fulfilling their requests, such as, "Mama, can I eat apples?" or "Mama, I want Ribena". And there's Emily to attend to as well, but I think she probably just sleeps most of the time. There will be nothing much unless she does a poo. At 5pm, Shaynne will wake from her nap.

MIL also cooks soup for dinner every evening. Somewhere in the afternoon, she prepares the ingredients.

At around 6:30pm, she gives Dom and Sern their dinner. At around 7pm, she waits at the front porch for Joe to come home from school (his dad drops him off and then leaves - to go home probably). Then, MIL bathes Joe (again I think he's old enough to bathe himself) and gives him dinner. She sits down to eat dinner as well. She doesn't need to worry about Shaynne's lunch and dinner because my FIL is the one who feeds her.

For the rest of the evening, there's nothing much to do but you still have to endure the chaos of having 5 kids in the house. The kids leave at around 9pm. My MIL will then sit down to watch TV while preparing some of the stuffs for next day's lunch or dinner, such as plucking the vegetables. At 10:30pm, when I go to bed, she mops the floor. I wonder what time she goes to bed. Probably not until close to 12am. Sometimes I forget to bring Dom's potty or Em's mosquito net into the room, and when I come out to get them I will find them placed right outside our bedroom door. How thoughtful is that?

I must also mention that previously when Saimun was working in this excruciating Telekom project and used to come home around 11pm every night, my MIL waited for him. At around 10:45pm, when she knew that he was about to come home, she heated up the dinner and soup for him. She waited for him to finish his dinner and then take out the garbage (otherwise rats will come). FIL waited up as well since he fetched Saimun from the LRT station every night. Why is it that I don't have parents like that?

sda

# posted by Skye @ 3:03 am